Our year so far has been mainly uneventful. We were all sick with the flu within the first week but since then we have been tip top.
William has been doing well at work and had his end of year performance review where his boss said that he had been an excellent employee. Not just good, but excellent. We hope that means that he will get a raise. William also got a calling in our new ward this month. He is a team teacher for the CTR 7 class with another brother in the ward. They are quite the group, 5-6 boys every week with one girl that joins them when she is having a weekend with her Mom. It is a very... exuberant class. In January William also turned the big Three Zero. We had a fiesta and had a few friends and family members over. It was quite the party. The food was obviously the center piece with the pinata coming in second. William got a brand new office chair for his birthday. After 10 years of his old one it was time for an upgrade. After the party Tom, Tammy and ourselves went to Tucano's to celebrate. It may just become the annual double date for us so that Tammy and William can get their free birthday meal.
Erin has been working on New Year's resolutions. She came in $10 under for the grocery budget in January. She also is another 4 weeks further along in her goal to have a baby this year (why not have one goal that you know is going to be said and done for sure?). On Saturday she accompanied her family on a trip to Twin Falls to see her brother Justin go through the Temple for his endowments. He is leaving for the Atlanta, Georgia North mission on Feb 22nd. Erin has also been trying out a lot of new recipes from Pinterest. It is nice to have a few new recipes to liven up the menu. Erin is also working on figuring out the layout of our garden now that we have ordered seeds. We can't wait to have fresh veggies to pick and snack on at will.
Sam started public preschool 4 days a week in January in addition to having his Montessori preschool 3 times a week. He is a very busy boy and has adjusted to a full day with out any naps. We can see so many improvements as he spends more time away from home learning from his trained teachers. His words are becoming clearer. He also is more willing to repeat words that we ask him too. He calls William, Papa, instead of Mommy. He is also learning how to share and follow directions better. He is such a big helper and always wants to help us in the kitchen or with cleaning up the house. One of his nightly tasks is helping to set the table. He is so strong and he knows it too.
Dallin is always in a hurry. He runs everywhere he goes and knows when he is getting into trouble. When Sam is gone at school he has a hard time staying out of trouble. He just had his 18 month check up today and was a whopping 26 lbs and has a very steady growth range. He got to shots, whined for a little bit and by the time I got his pants back on he was running down the hall giggling at the large stuffed animals. He tends to copy cat whatever Sam does. So when Sam runs through the kitchen and into the bedroom Dallin takes off after him. Our dog Koa is his best friend when Sam is gone. It is very entertaining to watch them stand at the front window together. Dallin will start shouting and then Koa will start barking as a car passes or somebody walks by.
Our friend that lives upstairs, Amanda, is a big part of our life. To help us out she does the dishes and watches the boys if I need to go to an appointment or go pick up Sam from preschool. She has been struggling with life in general for the last year, and just this weekend things started looking up. She has gotten a job as a paralegal for a reputable LDS lawyer here in Boise. She is the boys Aunt Amanda, and it is always fun to see them interact.
As a family, we made a bunch of snacks and watched the Super Bowl last night. Nobody was routing for a team, but we had fun listening to Sam as he shouted "GO!" at the T.V. while he waited for the teams to snap the ball. Dallin was a big fan of Amanda's puppy chow (muddy buddies) and constantly had white hands and a powdery mouth. As far as commercials go, we all got a kick out of the M&M's commercial the most.
If this post seems a bit... odd, it is because I adapted it from our family newsletter. It really does do a good job of letting you know where and what our family is doing.
